A Renaissance Soul in Flight

Horses

04/14/2010

This is Rodney...I think I'm in love with him. Isn't he gorgeous! So maybe he has a few whiskers, but that's okay. He's pretty sweet.

Rodney lives at SMILES. An equine therapy center for the disabled outside of Darien, WI. He was my buddy last night while my son (Riley) and I were volunteering there. You can read more about that here. Riley and I were pretty excited to practice our saddling skills that we learned last week.

Riley is getting pretty good at this stuff! I can see riding in his future (he wishes it were now, but we have to wait a while. At least we are learning, that's the important thing).

This is Rodney telling me to quit taking his picture. I don't think he likes my camera...I suppose it doesn't help that I had to use the flash. I was probably blinding the poor guy! I don't have the right camera or lens for this situation at the moment, though, so it had to do. Sorry Rodney.

"I'm serious, quit taking my picture!"

Ah, I'm just kidding. He was a sweetie pie. All the horses at SMILES are calm and gentle. I know they are trained to be that way, and they aren't accepted in the program if they aren't, but it still surprises me what they will put up with.

Now Honey here....

She thought it would be fun to try and eat my camera. She's a beauty! I have a picture that I drew when I was about nine years old that I swear looks just like her! I had goose bumps when I met her. It was like I knew I was going to meet her one day when I drew her long ago...

I'll have to see if I still have the picture in my studio somewhere.

This time we even had to sweep the barn.

It's amazing, though. Tuesday gets here and I'm always in the middle of something. I have a fleeting thought that Ah, I shouldn't go, I'm too busy. It's not like I have to bet there, but I go anyway, and I'm never sorry. I love that we get to be around the horses, that we're learning how to handle them, work with them, and take care of them.

I love that I get to spend the time with my son, too. Every time I'm walking across the arena, and I see him from a distance I feel proud. He's here because he wants to be. He knows he's doing a good thing, and he's ready and willing to learn more. It makes me happy, to say the least...something is working. He's growing into a fine young man.

And I'm loving the experience with the kids, as well. I wish I could take their picture, but there needs to be legal forms of consent signed before they can have their photo taken and published.

The girl I worked with last night was named Lacey. She is already to the point where she can walk her horse off lead, steer him through an obstacle course, start, stop, and back him up. She was quiet and shy at the beginning, but once we started walking, she relaxed almost instantly. Next thing I knew she became this little, laughing, chatter box full of noises and stories. It made me laugh, smile, and just plain feel good to be helping her.

04/13/2010

What am I gonna do now? Can you believe that my son, Riley, has become absolutely fascinated by this? Sure, he's been really into the whole Hunter's Safety thing, then he went into Trap Shooting...but this? I never saw this coming in a million years.

I guess it's my fault...at least partially. I am the one that got us into volunteering at SMILES. I thought it would be good to get us around some horses, especially if we want to have our own one day. Who would have ever thought that he'd have discovered the existance of this there?